About Me

I am a Hugo award-winning fantasy/SF artist who works on both publishing projects and film concept work(such as Jimmy Neutron and most recently, The Ant Bully) but I have a passion for landscape work, small paintings and exploring the properties of paint. This blog will mostly showcase my "painting-for-the-day" as kind of a personal voyage. I'll also be inserting sketches,photos and ideas of projects I am working on, that I can, when I can, so look for those every so often(usually as paint is drying!)

Monday, December 03, 2007

Newsflash: Take Care of Those Small Cuts!!

A bit of a newsflash here. And some advice to artists or anyone who works too hard and ignores their health. Last week, I was so damn busy and "pre-occupied", I got a rather harmless hangnail caught on something and it ripped away a tiny piece of the side cuticle of the nail of my left forefinger. Ordinarily, I would immediately wash this and sterilize it with some peroxide and then cover with a bandaid for a few days. Dunno why I didn't. I was...busy actually. About 24 hours or so later, I began to realize this finger was getting painful and inflamed. On Friday morning it was hard to take and, a red "thing" was running down my knuckles toward my hand!!!!Immediately, I got to the hospital. I have pretty good health insurance so why not use it? It's good I did. The medical advisor(sort of a high end male nurse) in the ER Express unit immediately put me on an IV of a potent anti-biotic. I also recieved a Tetanus shot. He then told me that I had in fact a life-threatening condition-what was suspected as a Staph infection. Now, with all the talk of untreatable Staph going around, I really was paying attention. He explained people often die from this, and that often they let it go too long and wind up hospitalized and/or very sick as it penetrates major organs. But all was to be okay with me as we got it in time. I was given a powerful pill to take and sent home. Now, it's really much better. Whew. I was really weighed down with some deadlines, and I just said "that's it!" I take the day off and slow up a bit. Had a relaxing evening with friends and then another night at two fun parties on Saturday.

The moral of the story is that you have to take care of your health. At all costs. Never, never ignore symptoms and signs if they are genuine. No good health, and no good artwork. Okay, rant over.